Through the Looking Glass
by DoctorGirlfriend
Summary: Post ih segments, once their relationship gets settled the adventures have just begun. Starting with a complete reversal, Gwen's in the yyh world now and Kurama's in his element for once. Ended.
1. Arrival

Through the Looking Glass 

1

(A year and a half after the end of Imaginary Houseguest, during the summer before Gwen's senior year of college)

"Just close your eyes and hold on to me," he had said as they walked into the woods with their backpacks and a suitcase. If anyone had been around to witness the strange sight they undoubtedly would have stopped to stare. 'Close your eyes,' since when had Gwen ever listened to instructions like those if it didn't mean her life? The 'hold on to me' she had been fine with.

They were falling through a black void, the ether that filled it rushing past their ears to create a troubled roaring as they broke far more laws of physics than was normal. Her eyes were held wide open, staring with delight at the gaping nothingness and her hands were clenched on his arm in the way one holds the handrail of a rollercoaster going down the first hill.

'Inter-dimensional travel is the shit,' she declared mentally as a pinprick of light appeared before them, gaped suddenly and swallowed them whole. Then they were falling for real, with a faintly glowing sky pink with light pollution, and green, green grass rushing up to meet them.

"Shimatte," he breathed, dropping the bag and grabbing her around the waist. Then they weren't falling so much as gliding, slowly, gently towards the ground.

"You know there was breakable stuff in there don't you?" she asked as she watched her duffle bag hit the trees and plummet through.

"We can buy a new hairdryer, Gwen."

"But still—"

"—it's the principle of the thing?" he finished her sentence and she giggled while reaching up to bat at him. They were quickly approaching the trees now and she craned her head around to look up at whatever plant it was he was using to slow their descent. It was some great purple-pink leaf that from her angle looked a bit like a hang-glider with one end jutting into view.

"Kurama, I didn't know you were also a butterfly demon," she said as they drifted by the first few branches.

"Ah apparently I forgot to mention a few things, did I also leave out the information about my chrysalis stage?"

"Oh no, I think I caught the whole part about you going from strong, powerful demon to little human boy."

He laughed at that and suddenly they were falling for real again. But aside from the sudden flip of her stomach due to acceleration she wasn't frightened. He found her absolute faith in him unnerving sometimes, almost like a burden, knowing that someone had that degree of trust, but it gave him strength as well. He knew that in an emergency she would do whatever he told her first and wait for him to explain afterwards. And she had followed him; she had trusted him enough to come to his world, completely separated from everything that she knew. He caught a branch and swung them both onto it.

"The gateway was not that high before," he remarked as she scooted out along the branch to get a better view of the city. "I'll have to talk to Koenma about anchoring it more securely a safe distance from the ground."

"That was awesome!" she exclaimed, looking back at him with shinning eyes and a wide grin. "Can we do it again?"

"Maybe another time," he smiled back. "But right now we should head over to my apartment. Yusuke and Keiko said they'd finished moving out yesterday and they promised to stop by tonight.

"Excellent, so I finally get to meet everyone in person!"

"Well except for Hiei, he shows up when he feels like and there's no predicting him. He probably won't be making an appearance."

He offered her his hand and she took it, allowing herself to be pulled to her feet on the branch before he grabbed her around the waist once more. With another swish of movement they were on the ground, Gwen having hardly felt the descent. Once they found the suitcase Kurama slung it over his shoulder and they started the trek towards his lodgings.

* * *

"It's cute," Gwen said and he had to catch himself in the doorway to keep from falling. 

The American stepped forward, kicking off her shoes before stepping up and tiptoeing across the tatami of the main room towards the small kitchen. She skirted the neat stacks of books he had left ages ago by the wall and leaned through the doorway to eye the range and mini refrigerator.

"Very cute," she said again, though this time he was prepared for such a denouncement as she shuffled past the windows and towards the bedroom. "Ooh you have a nice big bed, yay for not sleeping on a futon!"

"But Gwen," he called as he stepped out of his own shoes while balancing her bags. "I thought you were sleeping out here on a futon."

She leaned out of the bedroom to pull a face at him and roll her eyes before she disappeared again. A second later there was a thwump and Kurama heard the bedsprings groan.

"Gwen, if you're jumping on my bed—!" He rushed forward but needn't have worried, for instead of jumping on the bed the girl was curled up in it, the blankets pulled completely over her head. "Gwen, Yusuke and Keiko were sleeping there and I doubt they've washed the bedding."

"AGH!" She shot straight up and fell over the side only to crash to the floor with the sheets still wrapped around her legs. Her knight in shinning armor took his time in rushing to her rescue, laughing rather openly as she struggled to get free and rub injured parts. "That's so nasty," she muttered as she was pulled to her feet. "Why didn't you warn me?"

"Actually, I'm fairly certain that Keiko has done the wash, and while they were staying here they undoubtedly used their own bedding."

"Then why did you make me fall like that?!" She went from verge-of-tears to wrathful vengeance-seeking in less than ten words.

"I hardly expected such a forceful reaction. If I had known I would have made sure to have the camera ready when you fell."

"You asshole!" She spun and smacked her half-closed fist into his chest. "Ow…"

"I keep telling you not to do that," he chuckled as she clenched and unclenched her injured hand.

"Kurama, stop being so mean to me or I'll make you take me home!"

He chuckled even more at this and ran a hand the wrong way though her hair before walking back into the main room. "Well," he called back to her, "do I have to do everything myself or do you want to eat sometime today?"

"Fine, I'll help you unpack you lazy kitsune! But I hope your Japanese food is better than your American."

"I think I might take offense at that," he said as he leaned back into the room, his wide-eyed expression contrasting with the veiled threat he was teasing her with. "You've never complained of my cooking before."

"Who could?" she said, returning the innocent look. "You're way too scary."


	2. Bath

2

Greetings from China ladies (and maybe gentlemen…). I've been mad busy, to say the least and it's taken a long time to find the time and motivation to continue writing and posting from the other side of the world. I've been doing quite my share of sight seeing, studying and traveling, in fact I spent all of last week on the road. BUT what I'm trying to say is this is the least time I've had in years so I will be extra flakealiscious, in fact you might as well call this indefinite hiatus.

* * *

"Well, do you want to take the first bath?" Kurama asked as they were washing up.

In spite of Gwen's jokes she had eaten a little of everything, and a lot of dessert. She flicked the dish towel as she turned to look at him with her eyebrows dangerously raised.

"Are you trying to tell me I smell or something?"

"Well Gwen," he continued washing unperturbed, "you always smell, but I thought you understood that everything has its own distinct odor. Your American education system leaves much to be desired if this is considered acceptable standards."

"Ooh," she said, flipping the towel over her shoulder and poking him in the arm. "You can call me smelly, but don't you dare go insulting my school system, Mr. Pink-Uniform, only I can do that."

"How many times do I have to tell you, my high school uniform was not pink!"

Having finally gotten a rise out of him she smiled in contentment and put the damp towel on his head.

"Fine, I'll take the first bath. I wouldn't want to get in your smelly bathwater after you anyway."

"That's why you wash first," he called out. Kurama stood for a second by the sink before pulling the dish towel from his head and following after his houseguest.

"Are you sure you can manage?" he asked, leaning into the doorway as the water whooshed on.

"Come on, I'm not stupid!" Gwen sat back on her knees and rolled her eyes at him. "I fill the bath, I wash off out here, then I get in the bath. Not that hard."

"If I find soap in there…"

"You'll have planted it to frame me, now get out." She pushed past him to grab a towel from the hall closet and then squeezed back in.

"Are you sure you don't need help?"

"OUT!"

* * *

"Gwen?" A gentle rap at the bathroom door was followed by it sliding open. Kurama's face appeared in the gap as he attempted to peer through the steam. "Are you alive in here?" Not getting any distinct response he stepped into the room, peering through the haze.

Gwen sighed and sunk a little lower in the tub as Kurama's entry let in a cool rush of air. She was so sleepy and it felt so nice to relax back in the tub. She could understand how this was a nightly ritual for most people here. "I'll be out in a minute," she murmured.

"You do remember we have guests coming, don't you?"

"Right…"

"And you're hogging the bath," he laughed, sitting down on the edge and shaking his head at her.

"_Hey,_" she said, pointing a dripping finger. "What are you doing in here? I'm taking a bath!"

"I've come to see if you drowned."

"Well I haven't, so get out!"

"Lively now I see," he laughed while getting to his feet to avoid the angry splash directed at him. "But, you see, this is my apartment, and my bathroom and that's my bath that I have been waiting for for an hour now. So I believe I'm entitled to be in here if I want."

"Fine, Fine! I'll get out, just leave!" she called as she sent another splash in his direction.

"I'll give you five minutes," he said as he turned towards the half open door.

Just as he was reaching out to slide it open the rest of the way there was a sudden bang and a shout.

"Kurama!" Yusuke yelled as he burst through the door with Kuwabara right behind him. The red-head didn't have time to react as he was pulled into a head-lock. Gwen slowly sunk further into the bath until only her nose and above was above the water and her knees were pulled up before her.

The younger men continued to exclaim in Japanese, completely ignoring Kurama's responses for some minutes until Kuwabara punched Urameshi in the arm and pointed. The former king paused long enough to glance over and Kurama took the opportunity to slip free. Gwen sunk a little further as both Yusuke and Kuwabara stared at her. Kuwabara waved feebly and the tips of Gwen's fingers emerged from the water to wave back.

"Ahem," Kurama cleared his throat and pointed towards the door, which Kuwabara quickly exited through. Yusuke took a sharp shove from Kurama to get moving.

* * *

"Well that was delightfully awkward," said Gwen as she emerged from the bathroom fully clothed with a towel wrapped around her wet hair. "You seem to be responsible from some of my most awkward moments." Kurama managed a strained smile as he turned away from his two friends. The three of them were sitting around the low table in the living room. "Are they hassling you?" she asked as she paused in the doorway and he nodded faintly.

"She's small," the former spirit detective said as he looked her over.

"She's as tall as you Urameshi," Kuwabara countered.

"But probably as stupid as you!"

"Hey, I finished high school, dumbass."

They were about to break out tussling again but Yusuke paused his attack long enough to look over Gwen again. Apparently giving Kurama a hard time ranked above putting Kuwabara in his place.

"Kurama, couldn't you have at least found a chick with a bigger rack to bring back with you?"

There was a slight narrowing in the demon's eyes and Kuwabara choked on his tea.

"Urameshi! You can't say that about his girlfriend!"

"Cm'on Kuwabara, just look at her! I'm sure there were far hotter foreigners around who would have been just as happy to follow the ole fox back home."

"How long am I going to have to stand here while your friends make obscene jokes about me?" They all paused at the sudden interjection of English from the doorway and the more sensitive of the trio winced at his fellow human's icy tone.

"I'm sure they're almost done," Kurama said with a nervous smile. The glare he fixed on the other two shut them up immediately.

"Uh, Kurama, she can't understand us, can she?"

"She's not stupid Kuwabara; she knows what you're talking about." Turning back to the young woman he motioned her forward while sighing slightly. "It's time I make proper introductions, is it not? Gwen these are my friends Urameshi Yusuke and Kuwabara Kazuma."

* * *

short… yes. lacking in plot and development…yes, but I've had two pages written since before I left for the Orient and really felt I should bring it to a postable point and upload for all you darlings who've been waiting. I'm sorry that it's taken so long and I'm sorry that I have no idea when I'll be able to update next t.t I'm also _Really,_**Terribly** sorry that I haven't responded to all your reviews, normally I respond to every single one before I update, but I haven't got the time and I feel awful! So just some general points I noticed while rereading and thought I should answer:

No I haven't made Kurama a butterfly demon, they were joking about it

Kurama's not stronger here, Gwen just hit him poorly and hurt herself (because she's still a klutz)

Low level chaos will ensue in later chapters if I get to them

I'm sorry it's short and the writing weaker, aya!

And I love you all, thank you so much for supporting me and my writing it's always really cheered me up to get feedback and banter a bit


	3. Standoff

3

A quick update, timeline wise comes after the last 2, but several weeks later

* * *

"It looks like we're in something of a Mexican standoff," Gwen said calmly.

How she could be calm, or at least seem it, in situations like this always amazed the kitsune. Every time he let her go out alone it seemed like this happened and he wondered why Keiko never had the same problem, or at least hadn't had for a few years. 'Probably because her punches have enough spiritual force behind them to take out low level demons, whereas Gwen…'

He looked over their relative positions again. Less than ten meters to the big brute with waving tentacles and exploding spines that were poised and aimed at the girl standing only slightly nearer and off slightly to the left as she kept her eyes firmly fixed on him, her jaw set. And then there he was, with his back to the trees, rose whip in hand no easy means of distraction with Yusuke and Kuwabara temporarily immobilized. He'd _told_ them to watch their steps, but would they ever learn to listen?

"Surrender now," the disgraceful excuse for a demon called. "Your friends are already mine and there's no way you can save your woman. She will die by my hand." He cackled. It was actually a rather excellent cackle as these things go, with just the right amount of gurgling insanity along with the self-satisfied confidence of your usual baddie of the week.

Kurama, who'd been thinking this whole time, took a moment to actually look like he was thinking, an act which normally bodes ill for his enemies since by the time he looks like he's thinking he's probably acting and you just might be dead before you see him move.

"Well," he said and the other demons tentacles stopped waving quite so much. "I've never been one to surrender, but you make a very good point. I'd hate for the girl to die by a filthy beast like you."

The area they had all agreed to consider the demon's face (since that's where it seemed to be talking from) twisted slightly in what might have been annoyance, or maybe it was triumph, frankly it's possible he was just constipated, but whatever it was caused his temporary distraction so he failed to notice the ground under Gwen's feet begin to shift and crack.

"Throw down your weapon, insolent traitor!" it screeched now, but Kurama's expressionless face was not that of one about to yield.

"Actually," he said, "I'm going to take care of the problem myself."

The ground beneath Gwen erupted into a mass of vines and leaves as the demonic venus flytrap pushed its way to the surface, sending dirt flying in all directions. The demon screamed and released his spines but they only hit plant as the girl was encased by the flytrap, its flowers all snapping and pushing to add themselves to the mass that had enclosed her as it rose from the ground and shook back and forth. From Yusuke and Kuwabara came shouts of distress and shock while the demon looked on his opponent with new fear in his eyes. Kurama merely stood there staring, rose whip transforming back to flower in his hand.

"I'm afraid you made several mistakes today which will cost you your life," his voice came quiet and low but it carried over the sounds of the still thrashing leaves.

The other demons tried to flee, but he didn't get far.

* * *

"Kurama! Kurama, man, what the Hell?!" Yusuke called and Kuwabara hacked them both down from the demon netting they were hanging in.

Kuwabara was silent, but hit the ground and kept moving, his long strides quickly closing the gap between himself and their motionless companion.

"One moment please." Kurama held up a hand just as the taller man was reaching out to grab him, but he never turned away from the writhing mass of plants now covering the other end of the clearing.

The other two stopped and followed his gaze, wondering what he could be up to now. The Venus flytraps were moving again, slowly their large clump descended to the ground. Then, layer by layer, the flowers began to fall away. After a few seconds there was a sudden jerk and a dark mass rolled out of the few remaining and sat up.

"Eck, I was upside down," Gwen muttered as she crawled forward a short ways. As she pushed herself to her feet they saw her sway slightly and Kuwabara ran forward to catch her by the arm.

"Gwen! You're okay!"

"Only a little suffocated," she laughed, her smile flashing towards her boyfriend. "But it's better than being pulled underground."

Kurama smiled too and it had a slight feral hint, with a flash of teeth at the other men. "You two could learn to have a little faith," he said as he recovered the girl from Kuwabara. "You'd trust me with your own lives, but not another's?"

"Hey, we saw your plant eat her," Yusuke laughed as he ruffled the girl's hair. "Normally I'd trust you with anything, but damn if that wasn't scary!"


	4. End

Final

I'm skipping to the end, the very end. This is the last chapter, which I had written even when I was still figuring out the first in this sequel.

I've tried several times to continue, to write the intervening stories, the ones I know are there, but it seems too hypocritical now. Forgive me for getting personal here, I try to avoid it as much as possible, but I am more used to unhappy endings now. Gwen had her happy ending. So I leave her character behind and end the story, for real, here.

Thank you all for reading, your enthusiastic support has meant so much to me, I really can't express it strongly enough. You all have made my day, over and over again.

* * *

In his mid-twenties Kurama stopped aging. His late teens, mid-twenties, early thirties, to their average neighbor, affluent and white, this distinction made no difference, they really couldn't tell Asian ages. So for ten years no one really noticed. It wasn't until his midthirties were bleeding into the later ones, and the children were starting to drive Gwen up the wall in the way that children do, that he first began to hear how well he looked. Thirties faded into forties, to him they were just blips, the years going by, speeding up as they went.

"Like the mile markers on a highway as you accelerate," Gwen described it to him when he first brought up the feeling and then she made him listen to Pink Floyd again and insisted "this time _really _listen."

Then he understood, truly understood far more about being human than he had before. He felt time speeding up as much as he ever could then because his children were aging, but more importantly his wife, mother, and friends were aging and he was 'frittering and wasting' time at work when he should have been with them.

Demons stop aging. They either die or they reach a point where their youki has built up to a level that maintains their body. Raizen's massive youki maintained him for hundreds of years after he stopped feeding it. That was the power of demonic blood, all time seemed the same to demons. Their lives were things that stretched unimaginably long before them, as long as they didn't get themselves killed. Humans had a limit, skin cells grew less and less elastic, leading to wrinkles, healing took longer so scarring was easier, and finally, eventually, no matter how healthy in younger years, no matter the medical treatments, and in spite of all the goddamned luck in the world, everything shuts down and they die.

In his forties they started faking it. Hair by hair, Gwen bleached it salt-and-pepper (pepper now since he had long since stopped dyeing it red). And then, with her tongue protruding slightly between her lips and her eyes fixed on his face without really seeing him, she'd do his makeup. Just a very little at first and then more and more as the years went by, to simulate gradual aging. She'd darken the circles under his eyes to make them look like bags, exaggerate the fine, fine lines on his face to make them into wrinkles. The neighbors stopped talking and the newer botanists respected him more at work, though he couldn't help being aware of the fact that his wife was using her makeup to make him look older, and make herself look younger.

"No," she said, smiling at him like he was being silly again. "I don't want to be a demon."

"Once your demonic energy builds up your body will return to its peak physical shape."

"Are you saying you don't find me attractive anymore?" she laughed, though he caught the edge to her voice and the slight hurt in her eyes as she smiled.

"Of course I still find you attractive. But I've seen you looking at the mirror more often."

Her eyes flicked to the side briefly before she turned away and began tidying the library. Picking up books from one table and moving them to another, shifting papers around. She always tidied like this when she was upset or avoiding something. "Of course I've been noticing I'm not the cute little thing I used to be, but I don't think I'm bad looking, I might even be aging gracefully and what's wrong with that?"

"Gwen." He stepped up to his wife and gently pulled her around to face him. "I'm not aging, I'm not changing."

She stepped back ever so slightly and shook her head at him. A few of her graying locks fell forward and she quickly tucked them back behind her ear as she looked up at him.

"Kurama, I'm going to die before you. I always knew that, we always knew that. You'd committed yourself to the human world for decades before we even met, you had to know all the people you cared for would grow old and die before you. I'm a human darling, and I couldn't handle being anything else. I love you, but I don't know how I would survive watching everyone I care for grow old and die while I stayed young. I'm not built for that. I wouldn't be able to handle it, I would go crazy."

His children grew up, slower than the others their age, but they did grow. He watched his wife grow more tired, grow weaker. This was humanity, this was their lot. He came and went between the worlds. He attended his step-father's and then his mother's funerals. He watched the cities change and grow, morphing into unfamiliar creatures. He helped Yusuke burry Kuwabara and then Keiko in the green mountains of Genkai's old estate, their small monuments taking their places beside the old reikai master's. He said goodbye to Yusuke as the former king departed for the demon world now that the two humans closest to him were gone forever.

He buried the woman he loved.

Years they'd had together, years of happiness, playful bickering, romantic escapes, successful parenting. Years go by too quickly, fleeting things rushing on; unless you savor every moment you miss most of it.

He told his children how and where to find him and went home. _Home_ home, the place Hiei had yearned for those years ago when he'd been trapped in the human world, the place his spirit even now longed for when life got too mundane, the place where nothing went and died of old age, or a heart attack or a stroke, at least nothing normal did. He went back to the dark forests, back to his old haunts and still hidden treasure, a silver fox flitting through space-time and hoping never to return to the place that had hurt him so badly and made him so happy.

* * *

I'm sorry, I know I didn't respond to my last round of reviews. As always they are my sunshine when skies are gray! If you still have any questions or anything leave a review or pm me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks again for reading!


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